Hybrid View

The Wedding Thread! Swoon...

Inspired by Missus, Sarah and Alzora's fantastic wedding photos, and because I am tired of looking at re-touched wedding magazines, I am starting a wedding thread where all you ladies (and gentlemen) can show us your photos and tell us everything we need to know! I myself am getting married in three months and I am certain there are others who would love some inspiration. If not, who doesn't like looking at wedding pictures? I can't be the only sucker...

My wedding will take place in Italy at the end of July, it will be a small rustic outdoors country affair at my parents house there. I'm not a wedding person (I've never daydreamed about weddings), so this is new territory for me. Everyone I know has had big church and very fancy Vera Wang weddings, and that's not my style at all (think mis-matched tablecloths on rickety wooden tables). And if anyone has cute ideas as to what to do with the baby daughter (who will then be five months) please do tell.

My gosh I love this! I am definitely a "wedding" person and when I'm not fantasizing about babies, I'm fantasizing about my wedding! Doesn't help that an integral part of my Hospitality Management degree is event planning! My original wedding day was going to be August of this year, but has been postponed for a little bit.

My details are still up in the air. I can't settle on a "style" of my wedding until I settle on a color (Purple and royal? Yellow and rustic? Pastels and spring? Red and music-themed? I still have NO idea). Either way, it will be amazing and I will stress for months to make it perfect, as that's my personalty.

Why not have your daughter pulled down the aisle in a wagon? Seems to fit well with a rustic wedding to me!

There is nothing more surreal than seeing your own photos on Pinterest, lemme tell ya. My flower girl went borderline viral for a minute there, ha!

There is a description in the blog post about some of the things we did, and if anybody has questions I'm glad to answer. Like Ottilie, I am very not a Vera Wang type of gal. We got married in the woods in October in Texas - it was HOT! Ugh! - and we did it all ourselves.

If I could boil my advice down to one nugget it would be this: Stop. Freaking. Out. I felt incredible pressure and stress to have everything be just RIGHT. And it WASN'T. And it doesn't matter. It was a whirlwind. It all happened so fast I barely got to enjoy it. Make sure your BMs know their duties and keep people away from you. That is a regret I have. My head was whipping around constantly b/c everyone needed me for something. Establish a perimeter of colorfully-frocked 'maids. Eat something. Drink something. Dance. I did none of that. :-) Well, except for our first dance (to "When I Fall In Love" NatKingCole) and my dance with my dad (to "I Cross My Heart" by George Strait; we cried like babies).

My wedding day was not the most perfect, wonderful, magical day of my life. It wasn't. And y'know what? I'm glad. I don't want it to be all a big letdown after that day. I gained 15 lbs. from stress-eating right before the wedding, I spent ALL my money, my dress got stuck in thorny vines when I was trying to get in place before the ceremony (I had to ride in the back of a pickup truck to get into the woods), I was hot and sweaty the whole time, my stepmother was extremely awkward... I mean, sh** happens. Find your happy place before you even start planning. Decide to go with the flow to some extent. Decide to take deep breaths and be present.

There is nothing more surreal than seeing your own photos on Pinterest, lemme tell ya. My flower girl went borderline viral for a minute there, ha!

There is a description in the blog post about some of the things we did, and if anybody has questions I'm glad to answer. Like Ottilie, I am very not a Vera Wang type of gal. We got married in the woods in October in Texas - it was HOT! Ugh! - and we did it all ourselves.

If I could boil my advice down to one nugget it would be this: Stop. Freaking. Out. I felt incredible pressure and stress to have everything be just RIGHT. And it WASN'T. And it doesn't matter. It was a whirlwind. It all happened so fast I barely got to enjoy it. Make sure your BMs know their duties and keep people away from you. That is a regret I have. My head was whipping around constantly b/c everyone needed me for something. Establish a perimeter of colorfully-frocked 'maids. Eat something. Drink something. Dance. I did none of that. :-) Well, except for our first dance (to "When I Fall In Love" NatKingCole) and my dance with my dad (to "I Cross My Heart" by George Strait; we cried like babies).

My wedding day was not the most perfect, wonderful, magical day of my life. It wasn't. And y'know what? I'm glad. I don't want it to be all a big letdown after that day. I gained 15 lbs. from stress-eating right before the wedding, I spent ALL my money, my dress got stuck in thorny vines when I was trying to get in place before the ceremony (I had to ride in the back of a pickup truck to get into the woods), I was hot and sweaty the whole time, my stepmother was extremely awkward... I mean, sh** happens. Find your happy place before you even start planning. Decide to go with the flow to some extent. Decide to take deep breaths and be present.

See I was not into weddings at all until I met THE GUY. I never gave a crap about dresses or any of that. The new wedding industry boom is pretty new, y'know. My parents got married in a Baptist church with a cake-and-punch reception. And that was a BIG wedding in the late 70s. They didn't serve a meal. In fact my parents went thru a Burger King drive-thru after leaving the church, haha!

A lot of our grandparents and great-grandparents got married wearing suits in courthouses. My grandparents married in the reverend's living room with a couple of friends for witnesses and their parents. My grandma wore a blue suit and a flower in her hair. It was just after WWII. She was 19 and he was 21.

This idea that everyone - not just members of "society" - needs to have a Vera Wang gown and a catered sit-down dinner is a very, very new development, and it's been sold to us by a multi-BILLION dollar industry.

I had a v. minimalist wedding by a lot of standards (the average American wedding - AVERAGE! - costs somewhere around $26K; I spent about $7K) but if I went back I'd spend less. I really would. I regret paying $500 for that dress. I regret fretting my a*% off about the PERFECT DIY invitations and ending up spending $400 on them. (Insane.)

We had a dessert buffet - no sit-down meal - provided by close family and friends. Close enough we felt ok about asking them. It was Texas, so we had a keg of Shiner and a keg of BlueMoon pumpkin ale. And some wine. All of it chilling in an old bathtub. I assume there were non-alcoholic beverages somewhere, I didn't even notice, LOL!

There is so much crap you think you need that you don't. Soooo much. I bought stuff I never even touched.

I think it's the same way having babies. My SIL registered for all this stuff and gave half of it away b/c she didn't need it. I am sitting here looking at BOXES of wedding crafts and craft supplies and decorations... Argh.